BART announced a fare hike starting January 1 which will raise the average train fare about 25 cents, in order to partly address looming budget deficits in the coming fiscal years.

The BART board essentially reminded everyone last week that another fare hike was coming, the second half of an 11% hike that they approved in June 2023. Fares will rise 5.5% on January 1, just as they did this past January, which will raise the average trip price about 25 cents.

"We understand that price increases are never welcome, but BART fares remain a vital source of funds even with ridership lower than they were before the pandemic," said BART board vice president Mark Foley in a statement. "My board colleagues and I voted in June 2023 to spread necessary fare increases over two years rather than catching up all at once."

Foley added that the fare structure also raised the low-income Clipper START program discount to 50%, from 20%, in order to help disadvantaged riders.

Students still get a 50% Clipper Card discount, and seniors and those passengers under 65 with qualifying disabilities also get a 62.5% discount.

The fare hike is expected to raise another $14 million in revenue for the agency, but this will only put a dent into BART's ever-increasing budget deficit. The agency is expected to fall short by $35 million in fiscal year 2026, and by a whopping $385 million in the fiscal year after that if more public funding sources aren't identified.

With an incoming Trump administration, we can surely expect that all of Biden's transit-friendly federal funding efforts will dry up, so BART will increasingly be looking for state funding and other sources.

BART was unique among regional transit agencies in that it relied almost entirely on fare revenue during its first 50 years, however that is having to change with the increased reliance on remote work.

State Senators Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Aisha Wahab of Hayward co-authored a bill in the last legislative session that would have raised $1.5 billion through a seven-county tax measure in order to save public transit agencies, but they ultimately pulled that bill from consideration amid opposition. As KQED reported at the time, the measure may not be completely dead, but obviously needed work.